


the one where they meet

by TheVillageWitch



Category: xxxHoLic
Genre: M/M, haruka and yuuko gossip more than you imagine. they are besties, im still terrible with titles as yall can see, kinda threw the soulmates troope... if you squint, the one who shouldnt be mentioned is mentioned lol
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-06-29
Updated: 2019-06-29
Packaged: 2020-05-29 15:03:11
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,615
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/19402753
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/TheVillageWitch/pseuds/TheVillageWitch
Summary: The first time Doumeki met Watanuki at the Starfleet academy.





	the one where they meet

**Author's Note:**

> Yooo, guess who’s back!!! Yeah, I know, it’s been almost a year and a half and this has been sitting half written on my phone since then, but in my defence at least I finished it????
> 
> Shoutout to Nunchler on tumblr coz he beta’ed this and the drabble that started it all. 
> 
> tokkuri - sake server  
> sakazuki - cup for drinking sake

Doumeki stared. 

At the end of the hall, a person was walking towards him—no, not towards him, towards the lift— and they were doing so with such a confidence it stirred something in the lowest and deepest parts of his core.

A head full of black hair and the most beautiful blue eyes he had ever seen looked back at him with a scowl on his face.

Doumeki never stared.

***

“Grandfather, how do you know how it feels?” Doumeki asked as his grandfather finished filling his teacup, the steam slowly floating away.

Carefully, Haruka set the teapot down and waited for his grandson to continue. Shizuka grabbed the pot and started filling his grandfather’s, all the while Haruka observed him with scrutiny, buying himself some time to decipher the words just thrown at him but with no avail. So he waited until he put the teapot back down, both cups filled and steaming, to answer. “Shizuka, we are both aware most of the times I have no troubles understanding you, but I’m gonna need more than that to work this out. How does what feel?” 

Doemuki lowered his head and stared at his teacup as if it had personally insulted his grandfather, brows furrowed deeply. After mentally murdering it for about ten seconds he met the man’s eyes and answered “When you find the right person, how do you know how it feels?” 

Doumeki Haruka was a man of his word. He was loyal, dutiful, committed, you name it, and there was someone guaranteed to tell you he was it. He had seen friends and family die and stayed strong to his cause. He learnt from his mistakes and from the war. But not even with all his years of service and experience had he been prepared for that question. He had thought that one day his grandson would come through the door and announce him he had found his second in command, just like almost every other single member of the family that had chosen Starfleet. This scenario was so far down in the list he didn’t even have a way to react to it. To have him now, asking that question...

“It varies from person to person. Some say it’s like a heaviness, a weight they carry on their shoulders and it’s relieved when they meet; others say it’s like being incomplete, like you are a gigantic puzzle but are lacking half the pieces, and once you meet them, suddenly everything feels smooth; there are a few that felt a kind of urge to approach the person and touch them, some say they felt their skin itch or on fire, but all that discomfort went away as soon as they actually touched their person’s skin—which is kind of an inconvenient, if you ask me; some claim they felt a lot of things, some that they felt happy and sad at the same time, some even say they couldn't put a name to what they were feeling; but at the end of the day, all comes down to a mess of emotions and feelings, like if there was a storm inside you. It’s impossible to miss so I’m sure you will be able to tell when that happens.”

“It already happened.” He deadpanned.

Doumeki Haruka chocked on his tea. Gods, child, give an old man a rest!

“When?” He somehow managed to answer with a steady voice, once he had recovered enough and his throat didn’t feel on fire.

“Today, when I went to the Academy.” Doumeki refilled his grandfather’s cup and placed the teapot back on the table. “I didn't recognise him. I’ve never seen him before.”

“Now that’s worrisome. Is he... someone with a higher rank? Or...” Haruka trailed off, the sole idea of that person being a Captain, or even worse, an Admiral, was something he didn’t want to think about. 

“No, he wasn’t wearing any of those stripes. In fact, I don’t think he was wearing any stripes at all.”

“An ensign!?” His grandson arched a brow at him, and only then did he realise he spoke aloud. “Sorry.” He apologised, but Shizuka didn’t show any signs of being upset at his reaction.

“He was leaving Imonoyama’s office.” 

Silence reclaimed the room. No-one was just called to Imonoyama’s office like that, specially not someone without any stripes. There was only one person—in fact there were two, but the other one was long dead—he could think of with the power to have someone with no rank, and that have never attended the Academy, visit Imonoyama, and that only spelt either troubles or something interesting about to happen. He prayed it was the later.

“Well, I guess we would have to wait and see if you can meet him again. Let’s hope sooner rather than later. Don’t believe you want the title of youngest Captain ever snatched away because you couldn’t find your second-in-command on time, right?” Haruka smiled and was gifted with his grandson smiling back at him; a sight to contemplate.

If things did go Shizuka’s way, he only hoped his grandson could manage what was to come.

***

“I heard your boy was at the Academy today.” Haruka raised the tokkuri to refill his sakazuki and then looked at the hologram screen, the high-quality transmission allowing him to see the reaction he was causing without missing any details.

“And how did you come by that information, pray tell?” Yuuko asked with a mischievous smile. “And don’t call him that, the Gods know who’s boy he is.” And with that her smile turned into a grimace. 

Haruka smiled apologetically; all those years and the wound still remained fresh.

“A little bird told me.”

“A little bird or a falcon?”

The old man barked a deep and heartfelt laugh at those words. “Yeah, you are right. A falcon would be more accurate. Shizuka saw him today. Had no idea you were letting your little bird out of your wings protection already.” There was no real malice behind those words and both knew it, but oh did they enjoy playing that game.

“It’s time for him to leave the nest and start flying on his own. He’s got all the technical experience he needs, now he only has to apply it on his own. Sooo, tell me about your chick, what was he doing at Imonoyama’s?” On the screen, Yuuko downed her drink in one go and refilled it. 

Figures she would know where exactly Shizuka had been. He thought. She most likely already knew the good news but he would humor her. They loved humouring each other, that was part of the fun. “Imonoyama summoned him to inform him he was being appointed Capitan and that his ship would be ready in six months. He’s got that time to chose his crew and oversee any other minor details.”

“Congratulations! It was about time.” Yuuko smiled a real and sincere smile and raised her already refilled sakazuki. “Let’s toast for it. And for a bright future, full of accomplishments.”

He raised his sakazuki and with a smile on both their faces they clinked them against their screens. To his delight the sake, despite being the same, felt like it tasted even better, and once both had downed them they laughed like in the old days.

When the moon was high in the night-sky and it was well past midnight, Haruka addressed the elephant in the room. “How much chaos do you think they’ll cause before they figure out how to work together?”

“Oh, only the Gods know. Let’s hope that is not that much.” 

***

Out of the corner of his eyes, Doumeki stared.

At the other end of the hall, not really that far away, a tall figure had just walked out of the lift and wad making his way to where he was standing. 

In front of him, the clear crystal wall that doubled as window allowed him to see the tiny figures of the Starfleer Academy personnel and alumni, all worried about their own problems and tasks, their own personal matters and goals, their own future and immediate duties; all of the oblivious to what was happening thirty stories above, in the Director’s office. Or rather, what was about to happen.

In the silence that encased them, the footsteps’s of the man were the only sound that marked the pass of time, and were he not about to meet with Imonoyana again, Doumeki had the suspicious he would be slightly less stiff, less cautious. When the man finally walked behind him, Doumeki stopped staring at the tiny figure below and raised his eyes to meet the man’s gaze: the same black hair and blue eyes framed by glasses met him again, and the man, still with the most beautiful eyes he had ever seen, stared back at him with the same scowl on that handsome face.

The man acknowledged him briefly and then proceeded to lift his chin in a sign of clear arrogance and indifference, he then kept walking towards Director Imonoyama’s office but Doumeki didn’t care, he had seen what he needed to see.

When the door closed behind the man, something doing by the mysterious man once again the only sound around, he allowed himself to release the breath he had been holding, all the tension leaving his body and shoulders ceasing their stiffness. He still had to wait for the briefing to be over to meet Imonoyama and find out how thing would proceed but that was okay, whatever the outcome the gig was already settled and nothing could be done about it: Watanuki Kimihiro was his second-in-command and nothing could change that.

**Author's Note:**

> ((It’s 1am so i’ll come back later to check for anymistakes in the notes and tags))


End file.
